Businesses come and go. Those of us who live in large cities are often witness to the comings and goings of various restaurants and boutique clothing stores. The life and death cycle of these establishments is such a constant that we almost do not even notice it. However, when an industry giant goes belly up, it is rather noticeable. If the small businesses are like wildflowers, institutions like Sears are great oaks. When they fall or burn, we feel it. One such oak is currently falling in Cook County, Illinois.
Strack & Van Til, the parent company of Central Grocers, amassed roughly $225 million dollars' worth of debts in recent years, and has filed for bankruptcy. Strack wanted to keep the proceedings in Delaware where they are incorporated. Their creditors filed a successful motion to forcibly try their bankruptcy in Illinois where Central Grocers is located. This way the court has the authority to divvy up the company's assets and the creditors stand a greater chance of recouping their losses.
Most of us think of parking tickets as an expensive inconvenience — like costly bird droppings that fall into our lives and ruin our days. While we all dread seeing the loathed orange pamphlet stuck underneath our windshield wipers, for some, parking tickets can be financially devastating. Those people who unable to get out from under Chicago parking ticket debt often turn to bankruptcy.
Cook County is seeing a significant rise in bankruptcies for which Chicago's Parking bureau is listed as a creditor. One Chapter 13 trustee said those listing parking tickets as a significant factor account for nearly half of all bankruptcy filings in Cook County. This comes as a shock to those following the industry as well as the hapless individuals whose financial lives have been torpedoed by parking tickets.
The new millennia has not been kind to major retail outlets. One by one, giants like Toys “R” Us, Subway, Teavana, and Rite Aid closed hundreds of stores across the United States in 2018. Online megastores like Amazon and EBay have faced off with their competitors, titanic stores locked in mortal combat like King Kong and Godzilla, and basically obliterated them.
This is not the first time we have seen Goliath fall in recent years. In 2011 Blockbuster Inc., folded its company as Netflix brought down their final, lethal stroke. For decades Blockbuster had a monopoly on the movie rental market, but they could not keep up with the changing technology. In 2000, Netflix's CEO Reed Hastings approached Blockbuster's CEO, John Antico and offered the then-reigning entertainment monarch the chance to buy the new company for just $50 million dollars (which was then only a DVD mailing service as streaming had not taken off yet). Antico was not convinced that Netflix's business would survive, and so he passed on the deal. The rest, as some say, is history.
In June 2018, 139 taxi medallions will be made available to the public at a New York City bankruptcy auction. According to auctioneers, at least 20 of the medallions will be sold.
A valid medallion is required to operate a taxi in New York City. Currently, there are 13,587 taxi medallions in use in cabs throughout the city. Although the iconic yellow taxi cabs are still a popular way for New Yorkers and tourists to get around, many drivers are being pushed out of the market by Uber and other rideshare companies. These taxi drivers are often filing for bankruptcy as a way to recover financially.
Bertucci's Inc., a Massachusetts-based restaurant chain best known for its brick oven pizza, has announced that it will file for bankruptcy in the coming weeks. Currently, Bertucci's operates more than 80 locations throughout the northeastern United States. Its first location opened in 1981.
Bertucci's reported that its sales fell 2.7% in 2017. That year, it made a total of $183 million in sales. It reported these figures to Technomic, a Chicago-based food service industry research firm. Overall, sales at the top 500 sit-down restaurants in the United States rose 1% in 2017 and overall, the industry saw sales rise by 3.5%. Bertucci's has not announced much about its plan to file for bankruptcy, other than that the company is searching for a buyer to take the reigns once it completes the bankruptcy process. Currently, it is owned by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. Debt is nothing new for the Italian restaurant chain; in 2015, its current owner refinanced its debt to set it on a more sustainable course. Its current bankruptcy plan is another attempt to bring the company into a new era where it can be profitable again.
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